This invention is within the munitions art and concerns a device for automatically feeding ammunition to a cannon. More particularly, a device to deliver the new telescoped ammunition to a rapid fire cannon is disclosed in the form of a nondisintegrating ammunition conveyor belt.
Rapid-fire, medium calibre cannon are important in antiarmor and antiaircraft roles. These weapons require a shell supply system that can supply a relatively large number of shells to the cannon without magazine reloading. The prior art contains references to shell conveyor belts for conventional ammunition. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,026,776 to N. D. KINTZER discloses a cartridge belt which releasably retains the cartridges so that they can be side stripped in a manner permitting a high cyclic rate of fire. U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,649 to WILDER also discloses a shell feeder which comprises a series of sprockets with half-circle cutouts that progressively move ammunition from a belt drive to a ram load position. Both KINTZER and WILDER are designed to handle conventional ammunition delivered to a horizontal ram to breach load a conventional cannon.
No prior art was located teaching a system designed to shell feed the new "perfect cylinder" telescoped ammunition, such as that used with the Navy's new concept, 75 mm rapid fire cannon.
Cannon firing telescoped ammunition, in which the projectile is fully contained in the shell casing, offers several advantages over conventional guns for military roles. Telescoped shells, which although somewhat larger in diameter, are much shorter in length than conventional shells of comparable calibre. The new shells offer several advantages over conventional ammunition. The advantages include a short shell feed path for the guns ram-loader and a higher shell packing density for the ammunition magazine. The uniform cylindrical shape of telescoped shells coupled with their relative shortness, when compared to conventional ammunition, provides packing and storage economies through the logistics chain. Also, because of the relative shortness of the new shells, they can be stored upright in the cannon's magazine without causing undesirably high weapons system silhouette.
The shift in the munitions art from conventional cannons to those firing the telescoped ammunition require that new cannons be developed. One such cannon is the Navy's rotating chamber, 75 mm, rapid-fire assault cannon. This cannon has a cyclic rate of fire of 50 rounds per minute. New shell magazines specifically adapted to store and feed telescoped shells must also be developed. These shell feeding systems are required to feed shells vertically into a chamber that then rotates 90 degrees to horizontal alignment with the cannon breach for firing.
The disclosure herein is a device for shell feeding the new telescoped shells used in the new cannons.